Slow cookers are great product that I tend to believe not enough people in the kitchen use. They reduce the amount of time you need to act as “food guardian” because of their long cooking times in a low temperature, moist, closed environment. Because of the low temperatures, you don’t have to worry about your food burning. Essentially, you can “set it and forget it”.

You might find it interesting that slow cookers are often called Crock-Pots. Just as soda is called Coke, copies of paper are called Xerox, tissues are called Kleenex and searching the internet is called Googling it. Crock-Pot is actually a registered trademark of a company named Rival.

Slow cookers are usually a round, ceramic container and most have a minimum temperature of 200 degrees because of safety precautions. The cooking pot inside of the slow cooker is usually removeable, making cleaning easy. You can adapt a regular recipe to work with a slow cooker by cutting all liquid ingredients in half. Or you can join us at the Chef Club Forums to talk and share slow cooking recipes.

Here are a few tips for you when using your slow cooker:

• Ceramics are sensitive to temperature and you should always set your slow cooker on a pad or towel instead of a cold surface
• Most milk based products tend to break down during the slow cooking process. If you can add them during the last 30 minutes or so of cooking you will be much better off.
• You can use a slow cooker on a table to keep soup, stew, chile or similar dishes hot throughout the meal.
• Mini slow cookers are perfect for making sauces, dips and melting chocolate.”
• Get your recipes from members of ChefClub.net